Pastor’s Blog

So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Ephesians 5:15-16

This truly is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It is so good at keeping life and time in perspective. Since time is one thing we never get a second chance to use and it is so unpredictable we should always place it in proper perspective.
 
Sometimes time seems to move so slowly while other times it seems to fly by. Then there are those times we can get in a rut and one day seems pretty much like the last one. We may not think our future looks all that promising if we see the same pattern day after day. However we must realize every dawn is another chapter of our future. We have choices about how we spend our time.
 
Have you ever thought maybe that is the problem? We think of it as our time when we should be thinking of it as HIS time. Are we wasting our time, or are we investing God’s? it? Are we making the most of every opportunity “redeeming the time” as the King James Bible words it?
 
Our answers to these questions give us insight as to how we are preparing for the future. We know that what we did when we were kids has had a big impact on our lives today. But our lives are not over. What we do today will influence our future—and everyone around us—either for good or for evil. Our future depends on the choices we make and on how we invest time today.
 
British author Charles Reade wrote these profound words: Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
 
What thoughts are we sowing? What are we doing today to reap a right habit? We can “cash in” the time and make it work for the glory of God and His Kingdom. So, no matter how much time we have left, let’s invest HIS time for HIS glory.
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


Submit yourselves, then, to God. . . . Come near to God and he will come near to you. . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:7-10)

Many of us hate ourselves and what we have done. This way of thinking reveals itself in our feelings of unworthiness and our lack of hope. Or we conceal our self-hatred by acting out in rebellious ways. Those actions are just ways of hiding the shame and guilt. The bottom line is: We doubt God could love us.
 
But the Gospel message is just the opposite. No matter how defiant, rebellious, angry, or worthless we feel, when we move toward God, we find that He has already been moving toward us. He has already declared His love for us. God does not condemn us. He is seeking a change of heart. He requests a new way of thinking.
 
When we respond in faith and submit to God, our hearts seek and yearn for His peace. St. Augustine said, “You made us for Yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in You.” We find that rest when we draw near to God. That is a message of hope.
 
With God there is always hope. We must never indulge the thought that we have gone too far or sinned so much that God could never love us. The Bible tells us otherwise. The beauty of God’s message to us through Jesus Christ is that He loves us, unconditionally and fully. He loves us, renews us, and restores us. That is the amazing power of Christianity. No other religion offers the hope of transformation, renewal, and restoration that God offers through the blood and Lordship of His Son. When we humble ourselves before this loving God, He lifts us up to new life. We can accept His love and live purposeful fruitful lives.
 
Whether you are a believer who has drifted from Christ or a lost sinner apart from Christ, please hear the truth, you’re never too far gone. Draw near today, submit today, and start to experience the powerful hope of a restored life in Christ today!
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


Yielding to Jesus will break every form of slavery in any human life. — Oswald Chambers

It is crazy but in some countries adolescent male elephants have been running wild, attacking one another, other animals, and humans. Elephant aggression has become a big problem in many parts of the world in recent decades. As scientists have tried to figure out why, they’ve determined that elephant social structure has been destroyed, through poaching. The elder elephants are missing, especially adult male bulls (elephants), who are favorite targets of poachers. Recently some South African park rangers flew in some adult male elephants, they flapped their ears, raised their trunks, and bellowed for days—and they restored order. The young males got in line and stopped their destruction. Makes a lot of since.
 
I believe the same is true of humans. When men are absent or fail to lead, society breaks down. It’s why most inmates in the prison system came from homes where the father was absent, neglectful, or abusive. It’s why overwhelming percentages of high-school dropouts had absent fathers. Society’s problems become everybody’s problem. I believe only adult Godly men can help change this problem.
 
Jesus said, “He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives” (Luke 4:18). Men, this begins in our own personal manhood, in our lives, in our families, and in our communities. The way things are meant to work is for Godly man to find freedom in Christ authority and then share it with everyone within his realm of influence. If all Godly men would take this call seriously we could see great change in our adolescent behavior and fruitfulness.
 
In His Service
Eric Barnes


Calling All Men to Father’s Day!

This Sunday is Father’s day so all sons, brothers, Fathers, Husbands, and Grandpa’s come on out for Church this week.
 
If you’re like most men you are tired of dragging yourself through the mundane. Work to home to church to bed and do it again. It’s just going through the motions! Please hear this, God created you for so much bigger, more exciting, and really manly. God made you to rule, to change the world and He wants you to have a great adventure while doing it. He has a realm for you to rule, a people for you to lead and protect. He has a mission for you to accomplish and He has promised to give you all you need to succeed.
 
George Mallory was asked why he wanted to ascend Mt. Everest and he answered “Because it is there!” We as men desire to ascend and achieve, the only problem is we often choose the wrong mountain. Sir Edmund Hillary and his guide led the first successful climb on Everest. It took weeks to achieve, one base camp after another to ascend. Extreme steepness, high winds, deep crevasses, and avalanches threatened their lives. All for 15 minutes at the peak, they had to immediately begin their retreat back down to base camp because nightfall brought high winds and extreme elements. We often mistakenly aspire to ascend the temporal summit, it is like the old saying “I climbed to the top of the ladder only to find it leaning against the wrong wall.”
 
The only mountain worth climbing is the one that ascends to the Father, the eternal summit. The goal of the Christian life is the ascend the Holy hill. Come this week to church and let us start resetting our focus as men. Psalm 34 tells us: Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. See you Sunday!
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


The Importance of Meditating on God’s Faithfulness

The Bible is so important to me because it is God’s history with man, it is the story line of His faithfulness. I believe reading the Bible, knowing its contents, is so important not only to know the truth in general and the gospel, how we can be back in relationship with Him not only eternally but now. However, for me as important as those things are I treasure the Bible in this life because it keeps me from fear and worry. For me, knowing God’s faithfulness lets me live without fear.
 
We can Pray to Him in the midst of our troubles and not hide our requests from Him. He will not hide His face from us, but instead He will incline His ear to our prayers. He will answer us speedily for those things He has already promised in His holy Scriptures.
 
This is why we should read and meditate on His faithfulness, to let it increase our faith for !mes of hardship. By His own love, He has determined to save us. He will not relent until He has given us peace. But before He give us peace, first we must yearn to increase in knowledge and understanding of Him. He will allow the hardness of our circumstances to teach us to have a steadfast heart. We will learn to praise Him in the darkest moments, and we will find strength in His presence.
 
This only happens when we let our soul be quieted within Him, learning to place our lives in the power of His hands. Our job is to learn to trust and worship Him for His power and grace and then our spirit will be steadied with His strength and happiness. Meditate on His faithfulness today!
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


Memorial Day

This weekend Americans will commemorate Memorial Day. Many will gather in services or parades for grateful and cheerful celebrations. This is a good and appropriate thing to stop and remember. It is important that we remember the high price hundreds of thousands of soldiers have paid with their life-blood so that we can enjoy our political and religious freedoms. But this kind of remembering does not demand much of us, beyond not taking for granted our freedoms. There will be a brief remembrance, and then we’ll move on with our leisurely plans and full day of fun events.
 
But a Memorial Day kind of remembering will not be good enough for our suffering Christian brothers and sisters. The remembering that God requires of us demands sustained action: Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)
 
When the author of Hebrews tells us to “remember,” he isn’t talking about a fond, grateful private reflection. What he means is, “go help them,” and the original Greek means, “keep helping them.” When we remember our war dead, we don’t remember them as though we were dead with them. But we are to remember the imprisoned Christians “as though in prison with them.” We are to remember mistreated Christians as though we were sharing mistreatment. We are to react to our brothers’ and sisters’ affliction just like our entire body reacts to the pain when one member of our body is afflicted. God calls us to a demanding remembering.
 
In northern Iraq, Christians are being brutalized and exterminated. They are being beaten, imprisoned, raped, kidnapped, extorted, and murdered. Their homes are being stolen or destroyed. Their wives and daughters are being stolen and destroyed — sold into sex slavery. Christians in North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, and a host of other nations are suffering under terrible adversity and persecution. In Pakistan the Christian minority population is under a constant threat of violence, 700 girls each year are kidnapped, sexually abused, and forced to convert to Islam.
 
We are called to act. “Remembering” in Hebrews 13:3 is an imperative. Involvement is not optional. Remembering our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ must move us to action. Christians bear a unique responsibility to care for other suffering Christians close or far. Therefore, the suffering of millions of Christians in the world is a concern for Christians everywhere who know about it. We must do what we can to help. We must make ourselves more aware, Pray — really pray for them, give whatever we really can, share their needs with other believers, and go if possible to aid them physically.
 
Americans, remember with appropriate gratitude this Memorial Day the military deaths that purchased your freedoms. But Christians, don’t remember your imprisoned and mistreated brothers and sisters like Americans remember their war dead. Hebrews 13:3 remembering demands action. We must not do nothing.
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


We never know how God will use us!

After the fall of communism in Russia one American missionary team spread out across a Russian city to pray for the people’s hearts to be receptive to the Gospel of Jesus. One of the men was noticed in the city park by a Russian man who asked, “Are you from God?”
 
As they talked, the Russian man wanted to help so he asked if the team wanted some Russian Bibles. He led the way to a building just a few blocks away and introduced the Americans to the head of the KGB, who opened a large warehouse for them containing Bibles they had confiscated over the last 70yrs. They were now given permission to give these Bibles to the people. The overjoyed team quickly started to pass the Bibles out on the street corners all over the city and within a few hours all the Bibles had been handed out.
 
As the crowds dispersed, the Americans saw the Russian man that had originally helped them sitting on the curb with tears running down his cheeks. When they approached him, he pointed to the inside cover of the Bible that had been given to him and said, “This is my grandmother’s Bible! 20 years ago when I was in the Communist Youth Corps, she told me that Communism would not last but God’s Word would and the only answer for my life was Christ Jesus. I laughed at her and turned her in to the authorities. She was harassed and her things were confiscated. She died several years ago and I never forgot her words. Today I know there is a God and He is confirming the truth of her words to me. For only He could have made certain I received her Bible. Please tell me how can I know this Jesus!”
 
Hebrew 2 starts by letting us know God has always been revealing Himself to people in many ways throughout history. He has used angels, miracles, prophets, His Son and His Word to reveal Himself. You never know, He may want to use you to reveal Himself miraculously to someone. This is one of the things that make the Christian life so exciting. We never know when or where or to whom God might use us next. So just stay studied up, prayed up, and opened up to the move of God—be ready today may be that next opportunity.
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Last night our small group was studying Jesus’ teachings on prayer from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. The most important aspect, we all agreed on, is to “keep praying- never quit”. There is one account of prayer in history that always reminds me of this important fact.
 
As a young person , George Mueller, who became well known for his prayer life, began praying for five friends. After five years, the first one received Christ. In ten years, two more made decisions. Mueller stayed faithful for twenty-five years and the fourth man was finally saved. By the time the fifth man received Christ, George had died and gone to be with Jesus. Fifty-two years of prayer produced eternal fruit and saw the salvation of five people.
 
Luke 18:1-8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”
 
Is there someone or some situation you have been praying with no results? Be encouraged by this account. George Mueller may have thought of giving up on his friends, but he didn’t because he was trusting the Almighty God for the results. Continue to pray. God will answer you at the proper time.
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


Learn to Feed Yourself!

For decades, the bears of Yellowstone Park have been a famous tourist attraction. Back in 1983 a major Arctic cold front covered much of the United States with ice and bitter temperatures for two weeks. No one could get into the Park for those weeks. When the roads finally cleared, the rangers made a horrible discovery; dead bears were everywhere! At first the rangers assumed that they had frozen to death in the Arctic blast, but later they discovered that they had died of starvation. They had become so dependent on tourists and rangers for food that the bears starved when no one was there to feed them. The crazy truth is their natural food sources were still all around them but the bears simply had never learned to find the food and feed themselves.
 
Think of this in daily terms, what if a high school student’s mother had to show up to school everyday to feed their child because they never learned to feed themselves–crazy!!! How sad are these scenarios?
 
How many kids or youth never learn to feed themselves spiritually. They become totally dependent on their pastor, youth leader, Sunday school teacher, or parents for spiritual growth. Later, they leave the home and start adulthood without the ability to feed themselves spiritually. They are unable to stand against life’s hard circumstances.
 
Consider the scenario now– you, an adult reading this today, do you know how to study the Bible (feed yourself) do you know how to sustain your own spiritual life and continue to grow? If so, good, keep it up. If not, start today learning the habit or discipline of feeding on God’s word consistently. Jesus desires to daily nourish your soul through time spent with Him in His Word.
 
Decide now, this day, how you will learn and continue to feed yourself with God’s Holy Word! We should do as Paul instructed Timothy in (2 Timothy 2:15) “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes


The Church Testifies About Easter Everyday!

Back to work, back to the daily grind! This seems to be the way things are the day after Easter. Our worldly burdens push the thoughts of Christ’s resurrection out of our minds and we go back to our old lives, going about business as usual as if Christ was back in the tomb. It is almost like we watched some great show, when the music stops and the church service ends we applaud the performance and leave, marking our calendar as a reminder to see the show again next year.
 
Jesus is not a fictional character in a play. He no longer occupies a tomb and he lives in His glorified risen body and He continues to indwell and encourage His faithful through the Holy Spirit. When the faithful gather on each Sunday in church for worship they are testifying to the world that Jesus Christ is alive. His living body, the church, is in the world as a witness to God’s miraculous work in Jesus Christ. By the living Spirit of Christ the church is empowered to declare the truth of Christ’s resurrection. The church in the world physically speaks of the living Christ, who said, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again” (Luke 24:7). The church’s continued existence is proof that Christ is risen. The church lives in the world. The church is not a business or building but living proof of the Lord’s resurrection. The apostle Paul wrote, “The church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:23). The fullness of the risen Christ fills the church through the person of the Holy Spirit. By His power the living Christ reveals Himself daily in living active participating faith. As His people we are to continue the ministry as his body: preach the Gospel, call people to repentance of sins, baptize, and unite/edify believers in the family around of the Lord’s table. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6) which is confirmed and made alive in the resurrection. You see, God has raised Jesus from the dead and through Christ’s death and resurrection, God raised up His church to witness to the Almighty power of God and to testify to the truth. When the church member is dead in his attendance and service He is testifying of a dead Christ.
 
As members of the church of the living Christ He expects us to imitate Him in the world every day and join together each week to celebrate His power and be strengthened by the truth that Jesus is alive. The question is: Will you fall back into the regular routine and come witness the show next time or will you remain faithful, daily and weekly gathering, celebrating, and proclaiming the eternal truth that the stone has been rolled away and Christ is alive? Stay faithful in your attendance and service show the world He is alive!
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes